ironhorse_iv Review of All Monsters Attack

All Monsters Attack (1969)

I've watched my fair share of Godzilla movies and this movie is the worst. This movie is not a monster hit. It was God-awful turd!

[3/10 · 23 February 2016]

Continuing the awful trend of shifting the famous Kaiju series towards younger audiences, the tenth film in the Godzilla series from Toho Studios, was not a good watch. The film was released in Japan as All Monsters Attack, yet when it released theatrically in the United States in the winter of 1971 by Maron Films, the name was change to Godzilla's Revenge. No matter, what you call it, this film doesn't have Godzilla seeking revenge, nor does it have all the monsters attacking Godzilla. It barely has Godzilla at all. The scenes that had him, wasn't anything new. It was mostly made up of stock footage taken from various other Godzilla films like 1966's Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster & 1968's Destroy All Monsters. Due to stock-footage taken from previous movies, Godzilla's appearance keeps changing from scene to scene. It made for a very confusing watch. It also made for a very repetitive action-sequence for any fan that seen, any of the previous movies. However, there were new shots of Godzilla tries to teach his son, Minilla how to fire nuclear breath, instead of being a reuse of an identical scene from 1967's Son of Godzilla. So that was a plus. Also, it's nice to see, a new monster by the name of monstrous ogre known as Gabara. I just wish, that monster spent most of the time, fighting Godzilla than Minilla. In my opinion, Minilla is one of the worst things to happen to the Godzilla folklore. I really hate all of the scenes with him. He looks and sounds like a giant walking-talking mentally-retarded turd. It's really hard to watch, his scenes with his seal-like screams, and goofy Barney type voice. Another thing, that was super annoying, was the young boy named Ichiro Miki (Tomonori Yazaki). It's really odd, how he dreams up, imaginative fights on Monster Island, while trying to survive schoolyard bullies and Bank Robbers, Senbayashi & Okuda (Sachio Sakai and Kazuo Suzuki). I really don't know, how Godzilla is able to teach children to stand up, against bullies, when the monster, himself is a bully who normally roars, but whatever. Among the more unusual aspects of the film was the casting of Hideyo Amamoto as a toy designer and friend to the little boy. The reason, why this was odd, is because Amamoto is often known to play the villain, in other films. Seeing him, in this film is just strange; because I was thinking, any minute into the film, that he could kidnap Ichiro and kill him. Not only does, this movie has really bad casting, but the translating from Japanese to English is pretty bad. The English dubbing is some of the worst, here. It doesn't really match with the movement of the mouth at all. Maybe, it's better to watch the Japanese version, indeed. However, some of the film's messages are still somewhat controversial. I don't get, why the movie is telling kids to stand up, against bullies; only to have the main character act like a juvenile delinquency in the end to adults. It seems like a bad message. I get that, director Ishiro Honda was trying to get out, a message about parents needing to parent their children, rather than allowing computers, and technology to, but that is somewhat lost, within the madness of this story. Still, it's really cool to see that Toho had an idea of personal computer, way before it came into the market. Another problem with the English version is the soundtrack. The Japanese version featured a vocal song over the opening credits, 'March of the Monsters', sung by Lily Sasaki and the Tokyo Children's Choir, while the English other, features a jazzy instrumental entitled "Crime Fiction", composed by Ervin Jereb. Both of them, sounds like a jewel heist film, it really doesn't match the film, at all. I also hate, how the music pauses or muted out for a few seconds, during the fight scenes. It felt like a record player skipping along. Also, why was the kid's fight scenes, film in awkward pauses of film footage!? It make it, hard to watch, as well. Overall: Often paired up nationwide on a double bill with the1967's film, 'Night of the Big Heat AKA Island of the Burning Damned'. This movie is often considered the worst Godzilla movie by his fans, and I have to agree with that statement. I can't recommended watching this film. It's just bad.